Dog Walks in Hexham
6 walks to explore with your dog in Hexham, Northumberland
Hexham is the handsome market town of the Tyne Valley, built around a 7th-century abbey and sitting right on the doorstep of Hadrian's Wall country. For anyone bringing a dog to the north east for the first time, it's one of the most rewarding bases you can choose: the Roman wall walks are a short drive to the north, the vast forested wilderness of Kielder is to the west, and the town itself has enough good pubs and independent shops to make a weekend feel properly civilised.
The abbey grounds and the Tyne riverside give you pleasant on-lead strolls right from the town centre, but the headline walking is further out. Hadrian's Wall runs east-west across the high ridge to the north of Hexham, and this is the most dramatic section of the entire 73-mile Roman frontier — where the wall clings to the Whin Sill escarpment and the views roll on forever.
Best Dog Walks in Hexham
The Hadrian's Wall - Steel Rigg Walk (5 miles, moderate) is the route most people come to the area for — a rollercoaster along the crags with the wall running beside you, past Sycamore Gap (the famous tree gap now sadly empty) and the milecastles perched on the high points. It's properly undulating, the views are enormous, and the sense of walking literally in the footsteps of Roman soldiers is hard to beat. For a completely different day, the Kielder Water Lakeside Trail (4 miles, easy) swaps the wild uplands for the longest man-made lake in northern Europe, with a flat, well-surfaced path through Kielder Forest — a brilliant option for older dogs or days when the wind on the wall is too much.
Planning Your Visit
Park at Steel Rigg pay-and-display on the B6318 Military Road for the wall walks, or at one of Kielder's lakeside car parks for the forest routes. The wall crosses open pasture with grazing sheep, so leads are essential throughout. There's almost no shade and very little shelter on the wall — the weather can turn savagely quickly, so bring waterproofs year-round. Afterwards, The Twice Brewed Inn is the obvious dog-friendly Hexham-area stop: a walkers' pub right on the wall with its own craft brewery, a proper fire and an unfussy welcome for muddy dogs.
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